Freerk Boedeltje, a political geographer and border scholar from Holland, has been studying the San Diego-Tijuana border for the past two years. Boedeltje, 35, holds a doctorate from the University of Eastern Finland.

He has been based since 2010 at the Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias at San Diego State University, where he is on a postdoctoral fellowship.He recently shared his perspective in a presentation for the San Diego Association of Governments that discussed chances for increased binational cooperation in the border region.

Q: Why are borders of such interest to you?

A: It's the excitement of going to another country. I went as a kid to Czechoslovakia when it was still communist, with my parents. We had friends there. We would line up in Germany at the border, wait for hours to cross. It was all the secrecy, the unknown. You would not know what was behind that fence.

Being from the European Union, it's very interesting to work with borders because those borders have shifted so much. The internal borders actually disappeared from the European Union; there are no border checks at all.

Q: What's notable to you about the San Diego-Tijuana border, other than it being the world’s most crossed?

A: It's a border with a big paradox. There's the same secrecy going on in terms of security and how tightened the border is, and how big the fences are nowadays. But there’s also this huge flow of people and traffic crossing the same border. That to me is the most fascinating thing.

Q: What was your first impression of the San Diego-Tijuana border?

A: The fence, not just one fence, but the triple fence, with all the cameras, detention devices, surveillance roads. I thought to myself: It doesn't make sense to talk about cooperation. The only comparisons in Europe are Ceuta and Meillia, two small Spanish enclaves surrounded by Morocco that are fenced off to prevent migration flows into the European Union.

Q: Overall, how would you compare the San Diego-Tijuana region with the European Union?

A: The European Union is very much interested in cooperation and security. You can have secure borders, but you can also have cooperation. The priority here is much more security than cooperation. There is a lack of willingness to cooperate on a political level.

Q: Is it fair to compare the U.S.-Mexico border with Europe?

A: My research at SDSU did not really compare the two situations, but rather focused on how one can learn from another. In Europe, borders are generally dealt with in a more integrative way. The approach of the EU is ... an active policy to stimulate neighboring countries that are not EU. There is a huge educational exchange sponsored by the EU to bring kids from non-EU neighboring states for one semester or longer. The EU sponsors nongovernmental organizations. for example, those in Belarus that promote women's rights and freedom of speech.